$7 N":::
Concerts
Crosby, Stills
(pictured) and Nash
will appear Saturday in
the Greensboro
Coliseum. Area
concertgoers will also
have a chance to see
and hear Weather
Report and Count
Basie and Ella
Fitzgerald. Details on
page 3.
1 "I
Weekend sports
Bobby Gay and Bernie
Menapace had their
work cut out for them
against Clemson last
Saturday and, with
their teammates, face
Virginia tomorrow. The
wrestling squad opens
its season this weekend
in Norfolk. Weekender
sports are on pages 6, 7
and 8.
m Y
1
v V v. .. v. : -V.:. ; 4 ' J i s
i . . ....
,.J -uJ X
Friday, November 11, 1977, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Fear and loathing at 3,000 feet
Terror, fear, bliss
skydiving offers all
2
Skydiving
Somewhere in Franklin County, there exists the Sport
Parachute Center. From personal experience DTH Associate
Editor Lou Bilionis, right, says the hazards there are "few and
easily avoided." Jumping out of the plane is a little different
from jumping off those three-foot-tall practice platforms, but
it can be done, despite what common sense says. It takes
guts, determination and a six-hour course of instruction
before the final plummet. The fee for a first-jump course is
$40 and cheaper when learning to jump in numbers. It's not
quite like falling out of bed, but one thing's for sure, you're
better protected.
If
If .'ZmKI' 1,,
K 1 j t
; I
I i f V
By LOU BILIONIS
Associate Editor
Sheer terror. Ice cold, paralyzing lock-limbed fright. All turn to
bliss bleary-eyed, uplifting euphoria. And all in four falling
seconds.
Sandwiched somewhere in the interim is the gamut of human
emotions. The blinding spectrum. Time suspended, but no time to
discern. Suffice it to say everything ever felt, ever zapped across the
synapse of human experience, tromps across the eyelids in those four
seconds.
Outside the realm of whirwind emotion, well out of reach of that
vortex, the four seconds seem rather simple. Falling. The first second
sees you stepping off the wheel of a CESSNA cruising at 3,000 feet as
you let go of the strut. Head back, arms outstretched and back
arched. Perhaps IS feet closer to terra Jirma, maybe three seconds
later, the faint rippling of nylon and the gentle tug called "opening
shock" signal that you're home free. No longer plummeting from an
airplane like some stark-raving madman. No longer. The main chute
is a fully inflated canopy, a godsend. Graceful descent, unearthly,
heavenly quiet and peace-of-mind enter with warm welcome.
You are floating one-half mile above the earth. The horizon takes
on a peculiar curvature. Patches of land and bodies of water replace
the more usual asphalt and gravel. Man's commonplaces give way to
nature's better. You can't or don't see cars and buildings at
2,600 feet. All you notice is what seems to belong there.
Please turn to page 2.